Hello!
I am wondering if I am doing something wrong by putting the mixture in “full rich” during landing. The reason why I do this is in case of a go around I have the needed power to quickly climb. But I’m wondering if that would be bad for the engine as the airplane is operating at such a low power during landing and would it be cause for engine trouble and or damage?
Thank you for your answers!
Like most things in aviation, it depends…
I was taught to use full mixture on descent / in the landing pattern, so I didn’t have to worry about pushing it forward on a go around. Some pilots will tell you that leaning for max rpm will be nicer on your engine and you can just push both the throttle and mixture forward on a go around. This is especially true at high-elevation airports (> 3000 density altitude).
In Infinite Flight you don’t need to worry about engine condition and the mixture control is far away from the throttle, so I would set full rich before landing so you don’t forget about it.
Generally if you are Flying circuits you would leave the mixture on full rich.
If you’re leaving the airport area then you can lean the mixture for better results.
However, I fly a Cessna 172 in the real world and the one in the game feels underpowered.
Thanks for your answers! So I guess I’ll just keep doing what I am already doing with the mixture, keeping full rich on landing.
I love threads like these! It’s refreshing to see someone ask how to to apply real-world procedures to their flying within the simulator.
Just a small note:
Putting the mixture to full rich for takeoff, climb (at low altitudes) and landing is less to do with power and more to do with engine cooling at high loads - seen at takeoff, climb and during the go around.
Leaning the engine obviously pulls some of the fuel vapour out of the cylinder. This does increase efficiency and will indeed yield a small power gain, however, doing so will also result in the cylinder head temperature (CHT) increasing.
Usually the aircraft POH will have some information or a guide on the target CHT, mixture, fuel flow etc for a specific altitude. For example, the piper seminoles I used to fly wanted ‘leaning’ to a CHT of 1400°F (give or take) during the cruise at 23" and 2300RPM.
Although far more in depth than anything currently in IF would require, I hope this provides a bit more context about why we put the mixture to full rich for take off and landing.
This is interesting. I’ve seen different tutorials on C172 mixture usage, which recommended different procedure. It had full rich for takeoff and initial climb, then leaning the mixture until EGT was maximized, for fuel efficiency. Then back to full rich for approach and final / go around.
I can understand in Sims, not getting so detailed as to aim for specific temperatures, but these guides definitely help.
Unless IF used the same fuel burn regardless of mixture, in which case I’ll stop being so specific.
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